They stuck his feet into shoes before he knew how to walkand tied them in once he could-now every morninghe threads strings through the eyeletsof his black boots,wondering when he got so laced up.

2.

On this morning,the west-facing window brought a light to the east, his bed caught fragments of sunthat pooled in the folds of the blanket,and before being interrupted abruptly by the ritual crack of an alarm clock, he awokeand swam in that light.

3.

Watching alien particles dance through the air in slices of warmth cut by the blindsof his apartment window,sent from a flame in the skya hundred million miles away-he paused and had a moment of claritythat felt like something between déjà vu and nirvana.

4.

On his way to work,he noticed the line of carsparked on the boulevard,with their neatly displayedand individually paid registrations,gleaming underneath the sun just like stars in the night;and while he suddenly didn’t know what to hope for,he felt something knew,and wished on every one.

5.

How many minutes have you spent wishing to pass the hours?

6.

Inside of his office, on the 5th floor of a building, stacked neatly in a row,behind a freeway that could take you anywhere but rarely did, his perfunctory work became shackles and chains,and he felt the world spinning without him,every rotation aching more.

7.

He stood up and sat downbecause the room grew too small, each minute too important, and the hours blissfully lost in a perfect momentmore than an elusive and unknown escape.Looking down he became overtly aware his shoes were tied too tight, and if he had ever held a moment of weightlessin transcendent harmony, he felt it now;and raising his office blinds to the sky,a light shone in that was like waking from a dream.

8.

All moments pass too soon; and the best he could do was feel the tingling aftershockcascade over the room.

9.

He was removed- and noticing the space harboring it all, between the things he never thought to focus on,he caught a glimpse of everything he had missed there before.

10.

There are a million ways to see a room,perception is the beauty of beholding.

11.

So it blazed in with the sunand brieflythe room was on fire with purpose-he rose from his deskand walked straight through the flames.

12.

He left it all behind,because letting go of the routine,the schedules,the twisted priorities,the delusions of grandeur,the lesser of evils,and everything else stacked across the expanse of pavementstretching towards the sun-was the only way to fight the silent war.

13.

Once in the parking lothe left his numbered spot, and forgetting his pre-paid ticket,drove straight through the electronic parking gate arm,leaving a burst of wood and plastic in his wake,droving towards that ball of fire in the sky.

14.

He followed it to the coast right into a sunset, and parked on the sandin a tow away zone.Not wasting another second,with his keys still in the ignition he climbed onto the hood of the carto kiss every pink and orange cloudreaching towards the horizon.

15.

The shirt ripped of easilyand his pants rolled up quickly.With wind tickling at his pale skin,he let the salt of the earth into his lungs,the way it always should have.Finally,he could untie his shoes,and just before hurling them into the crashing waves,with his feet in the sand,he vowed to take his time with each step,and boldly walk barefoot into the unknown.